In an unusual performance, the White House ruled on the decision to convict former police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of African-American George Floyd. However, with few exceptions, the silence from the Republican ranks was very striking. Beyond the political reactions, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it is investigating the Minneapolis police, to which Chauvin belonged, to determine if the practices it applies are in accordance with the law.
Moved by Tuesday’s verdict, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared publicly on Wednesday to announce that the Justice Department he leads was launching a comprehensive investigation into police practices in Minneapolis. The inquiry seeks to establish whether there is “a pattern or practice” of unconstitutional or illegal policing that could lead to significant changes in policing by law enforcement in that Minnesota city. Garland concluded by stating that the verdict of the floyd case “It does not address potentially systemic policing issues in Minneapolis.”
Before, during and after the verdict was read that declared Chauvin, 45, responsible for the three counts of murder with which he was accused, the president, Joe Biden, assured that he “prayed” for the jury to reach “A correct verdict” in a case that he described as “overwhelming.” The White House sent the message that it also admitted that it considered Chauvin guilty of having killed Floyd, although his press officer, Jen Psaki, tried to defuse the matter by ensuring that the president was not trying to influence but to show compassion for the family of the victim. Biden himself assured that he made the statements knowing that the jury was isolated and could not be influenced.
Biden: “Systemic racism is a stain on America’s soul”
Minneapolis celebrates the verdict with a question: how many dead were not recorded?
However, as soon as the verdict, which is a milestone in the fight against racism in the United States, was known, Biden phoned Floyd’s family who were congregating in the corridors of the Minneapolis courthouse. On that occasion, the president of the United States made his first great statement, proclaiming the great importance of the moment that the nation was living. “The United States is a better place today,” he said.
Little more than two hours later and, once Floyd’s family had appeared before the television cameras, the moment came when the president addressed the nation, along with his number two, Kamala Harris. Both recognized the founding sin of the country. Biden was blunt: “Systemic racism is a stain on the soul of the nation.” It was the third time in the day that the former vice president under Barack Obama broke the barrier that separates the executive branch of the White House from the judiciary and openly expressed his opinion regarding the floyd case celebrating the verdict as “a giant step for justice in the United States.”
The newspaper columnist The Washington Post Paul Waldman wrote Tuesday that Biden should not have made his views known before the verdict was known, and that there was also a double yardstick in evaluating Biden’s actions and who his boss was for eight years. Imagine President Barack Obama saying something similar. The reaction on the part of the Republicans would have been without a doubt thermonuclear ”, he pointed out.
For example, Obama was harshly condemned for a simple comment. The then president declared after the death in 2012 of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, shot by a security guard in Florida, that if he had had a child “he would look like Trayvon.” That simple phrase, that transgression in the opinion of the political opposition, was used for years by Republicans to ensure that Obama was an instigator of the racial struggle.
Pending reforms
If it is true that the United States closed a momentous chapter in its racial history on Tuesday, it is also true, as Biden stated, that there is still a long way to go within the national catharsis that sparked the floyd case, with the largest wave of protests against racism in the country since the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.
The president complained that it had taken almost a year – Floyd’s death occurred on May 25, 2020 – for “a murder committed in broad daylight” to have a culprit convicted in court. Biden declared up to three times that it was necessary to put an end to the violence exerted by some forces of order, for which the Congress had to act and convert the bill – which bears Floyd’s name – into law against police abuses. A bill that was already approved by the House of Representatives in early March, but that languishes in the Senate and where it can end up dying due to filibustering. “Enough is enough,” Biden repeated up to three times. President and Vice President Harris called for the law to be carried out, which would make it much easier to prosecute agents who misuse force.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/us-opens-police-investigation-after-conviction-in-floyd-case/
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